Lorraine Hansberry Biography Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Resources 490 0 R /Resources 352 0 R HANSBERRY, Lorraine (b. She was previously married to Robert Nemiroff. Two beds are dimly seen, and at the back of the room a dormer window. When she was 8 years old, Hansberrys family deliberately attempted to move into a restricted neighborhood. 18 0 obj /Annots 551 0 R 72 0 obj /Annots 641 0 R Contains materials created primarily by Hansberry from 1950 until her death in 1964. [20] Hansberry traveled to Georgia to cover the case of Willie McGee, and was inspired to write the poem "Lynchsong" about his case. /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] May 19, 2020, 1:06pm. /Resources 646 0 R >> 136 0 obj /Contents 447 0 R << PPT - Lorraine Hansberry PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID /Title (A Raisin in the Sun) /Contents 330 0 R Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry - amazon.com A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, a Black family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. Hansberry seemed to anticipate it all. << Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for A Raisin En The Sun Hansberry, Lorraine Book at the best online prices at eBay! >> A civil rights activist her entire life, Hansberry began identifying herself as a feminist and lesbian in the 1950s. >> /Contents 282 0 R << She was a "movement baby," Colbert writes. /Type /Page Soon after A Raisin in the Sun made history, the 28-year-old writer and activist talked to Studs Terkel about racial and gender inequity and the role of art in confronting difficult truths about our world.. To learn more about Lorraine Hansberry, watch the documentary Sighted Eyes . Lorraine Hansberry Analysis - eNotes.com /Annots 425 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] >> To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words is a 1969 collection of autobiographical writings by the playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun. /Parent 1 0 R >> 121 0 obj /Type /Page /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] >> endobj /Type /Page Each of the adult members of the family has an . Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930-January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist. /Contents 630 0 R /Type /Page /Contents 188 0 R These years taught Hansberry the necessity of fighting on all fronts. << /Annots 581 0 R endobj Lorraine Vivian Hansberry is born in Chicago on May 19, the daughter of a prominent real estate broker and the niece of a Howard University professor of African history. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" 126 0 obj >> . /Type /Page /Resources 397 0 R Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1963 and she died two years later on January 12, 1965, at age 34. /Resources 388 0 R /Parent 1 0 R /Parent 1 0 R She is bestknown forwriting "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway. Lorraine Hansberry | National Women's History Museum /Parent 1 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Resources 436 0 R << [63] The single reached the top 10 of the R&B charts. /Annots 269 0 R Beyond question! << She held fund-raisers, and studied alongside Alice Childress and W.E.B. It is the same idea one encounters in radical thinkers today, in Mariame Kabas notion of abolitionist feminism as a practice of freedom. /Annots 407 0 R >> /Parent 1 0 R /Contents 402 0 R 85 0 obj 116 0 obj /Parent 1 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Resources 577 0 R /Type /Page The writing urge is on, she wrote. /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Parent 1 0 R /Parent 1 0 R /Annots 614 0 R >> /Annots 635 0 R /Contents 486 0 R To those around them, the Hansberrys were inspirational both parents were college . The Quiet Lesbian Biography of Lorraine Hansberry - Autostraddle 14 0 obj /CSpg /DeviceGray /Type /Page /Annots 654 0 R >> [10] Lorraine was taught: "Above all, there were two things which were never to be betrayed: the family and the race."[8]. [45], In 1963, Hansberry participated in a meeting with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, set up by James Baldwin. /Parent 1 0 R /Parent 1 0 R endobj ThoughtCo, Jan. 2, 2021, thoughtco.com/lorraine-hansberry-biography-3528287. >> 104 0 obj The Double Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Out Magazine, September 1999 /Resources 325 0 R /Resources 247 0 R >> Anderson, "Freedom Family" (2008), p. 263. /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Annots 371 0 R /Resources 316 0 R What we're reading: This is the authoritative biography of Chicago's Anderson, "Freedom Family" (2008), pp. /Resources 517 0 R /Annots 575 0 R /Contents 267 0 R [24] Hansberry and Nemiroff moved to Greenwich Village, the setting of her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. >> /Type /Page /Type /Page endobj /Resources 361 0 R 146 0 obj /Resources 526 0 R [8], She worked on Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party presidential campaign in 1948, despite her mother's disapproval. endobj /Contents 552 0 R Though A Raisin in the Sun i s the crown . Lorraine graduated from Englewood High School in 1948 and attended the University of Wisconsin. /Contents 492 0 R Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She ushered in a new era in theater history by becoming the first African-American writer and the youngest American playwright to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her play, A Raisin in the Sun (1959). [39], When Nemiroff donated Hansberry's personal and professional effects to the New York Public Library, he "separated out the lesbian-themed correspondence, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, and full runs of the homophile magazines and restricted them from access to researchers." /Type /Page /Resources 391 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Creator of 'Raisin in the Sun'. /Type /Page >> /Parent 1 0 R Word Count: 170. A central aim of Colberts biography, as with Perrys book and Strains documentary, is to reclaim Hansberry as the radical she was. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. Hansberry begins school at Betsy Ross Elementary at 61st Street and Wabash . Sign In. /Parent 1 0 R /Resources 637 0 R /Contents 570 0 R Du Bois , poet Langston Hughes, singer, actor, and political activist Paul Robeson, musician Duke Ellington, and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens. /Resources 403 0 R /Resources 265 0 R Book Review: A Valuable Reminder of Lorraine Hansberry's "Radical Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930January 12, 1965) was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist. /Resources 418 0 R /Resources 625 0 R /Contents 543 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] The show ran for more than two years and won two Tony Awards, including Best Musical. To quote Simone de Beauvoir, an important influence, Hansberry could not think in terms of joy or despair but in terms of freedom. And she could not think of freedom as a destination but as a practice, full of intervals, regressions. Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun Author: Charles J. Shields Read Excerpt About This Book The moving story of the life of the woman behind A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage, by the New York Times bestselling. PERRY: She was willing to risk her fame and her recognition for. /Resources 373 0 R /Annots 617 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Type /Page /Resources 313 0 R /Parent 1 0 R /Type /Page /Filter /FlateDecode Included are diaries, journals and autobiographical notes, information regarding education and employment, subject files, correspondence, and interviews. endobj >> /Contents 366 0 R Du Bois. /Parent 1 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] 112 0 obj 127 0 obj The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of San Francisco, which specializes in original stagings and revivals of African-American theatre, is named in her honor. /Parent 1 0 R /Annots 611 0 R As a young, Black woman, Hansberry was a groundbreaking artist, recognized for her strong, passionate voice on gender, class, and racial issues. Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Playwright and Activist - ThoughtCo /Resources 532 0 R Lewis, Jone Johnson. 149 0 obj /Annots 590 0 R >> 12 0 obj /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] In 1969, Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry called "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." [PDF] [EPUB] Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun endobj Born Lorraine Vivian Hansberry May 19,1930 Place: Chicago, Illinois Parents: Carl Augustus and Nannie Louise Hansberry (Carl was a real estate broker, Nannie was a school teacher) The youngest of four children by seven years Uploaded on Jul 30, 2014 Elroy Chevallier + Follow lloyd richards black director window social research /Type /Page endobj /Contents 423 0 R /Resources 250 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Resources 370 0 R 83 0 obj /Resources 229 0 R /Contents 567 0 R >> << /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] In 1956, her husband and Burt DLugoff wrote the hit song, Cindy, Oh Cindy. Its profits allowed Hansberry to quit working and devote herself to writing. endobj /Resources 298 0 R << /Annots 165 0 R << /Annots 476 0 R /Annots 533 0 R /Parent 1 0 R /Type /Page /Parent 1 0 R << /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] >> The Interviews subseries, 1959-1963, n.d. (.2 lin. /Annots 620 0 R /Type /Page /Annots 440 0 R /Resources 189 0 R >> 134 0 obj /GSa 164 0 R /Annots 287 0 R >> /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] endobj Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The granddaughter of a formerly enslaved person, Lorraine Hansberry was born into a family that was active in the Black community of Chicago. 3 0 obj /Resources 256 0 R /Contents 639 0 R /Type /Page A studio recording by Simone was released as a single and the first live recording on October 26, 1969, was captured on Black Gold (1970). >> 125 0 obj /Annots 485 0 R endobj >> >> 4 0 obj /Annots 452 0 R endobj /Contents 191 0 R An opportunity to escape from poverty comes in the form of a $10,000 life insurance check that the matriarch of the family (Lena Younger or Mama) receives upon her husband's death. /Parent 1 0 R Look at the work that awaits you! she said in a speech to young writers, calling them young, gifted and Black inspiring the Nina Simone song of the same name. /Filter /DCTDecode /Type /Page /Resources 493 0 R >> << The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry following illustrate her development as a Black woman, activist, and writer. /Type /Page /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] She soon joined the first lesbian civil rights organization in the U.S., Daughters of Bilitis, contributing letters about women's and gay rights to their magazine,The Ladder. 60 0 obj /Parent 1 0 R /Resources 238 0 R When Hansberry was a child, she and her family lived in a Black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. endobj /Type /Page Hansberry's full-page report detailed the graphic and, inevitably, frustrating encounter between officials of the Justice Department and women like Amy Mallard, the widow of a World War II veteran who had been shot to death for attempting to vote in Georgia.". Her grandniece is the actress Taye Hansberry. /Annots 180 0 R << /Parent 1 0 R << [35][27], Written and completed in 1957, A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, becoming the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. /Parent 1 0 R /Contents 342 0 R DuBois, poet Langston Hughes, actor and political activist Paul Robeson, musician Duke Ellington and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens. << 268269. Anderson, "Freedom Family" (2008), p. 260. [16], Hansberry often explained these global struggles in terms of female participants. 15 0 obj endobj /Resources 469 0 R [14], In 1951, Hansberry joined the staff of the black newspaper Freedom, edited by Louis E. Burnham and published by Paul Robeson. /Contents 417 0 R /Annots 389 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Annots 329 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] 23 0 obj /XObject << >> /Contents 390 0 R 155 0 obj 20 0 obj /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Annots 464 0 R 1930-36. Interest in anomie, absurdity or paralysis was dismissed as liberal silliness, and an abdication of artistic responsibility. >> >> /Parent 1 0 R /Type /Page /Parent 1 0 R Lorraine Hansberry Biography - eNotes.com In 2018, a new American Masters documentary,"Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart," was released, by filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain. Dr. J. Carl Gregg 2 February 2020 frederickuu.org For this rst Sunday of Black History Month, I would like to invite us to focus on the fascinating life of Lorraine Hansberry, who died in 1965 at the far too young age of thirty-four. /Parent 1 0 R /Resources 454 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] endobj Here is Hansberry resurrected from the archives, from her scripts, scraps and drafts. /Parent 1 0 R 27 0 obj 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. 8 0 obj /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] endobj endobj /Annots 356 0 R /Contents 258 0 R >> "A Raisin in the Sun" opened on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. /Contents 261 0 R A Raisin in the Sun Summary - GradeSaver >> Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, had so much of the truth of Black peoples lives been seen on the stage, her friend James Baldwin would later recall. In 1961, Hansberry was set to replace Vinnette Carroll as the director of the musical Kicks and Co, after its try-out at Chicago's McCormick Place. (October/November 2012), ". /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] endobj endobj >> endobj >> 142 0 obj Nannie, Lorraine's mother, stood watch with a gun. /Parent 1 0 R /Parent 1 0 R Hansberry reviewed Wrights fiction a little uncharitably, to my mind. /Type /Page (2021, January 2). << /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Resources 523 0 R /Type /Page /Parent 1 0 R << 1935. /Type /Page He also collected Hansberrys unpublished writings, speeches and journal entries and presented them in the autobiographical montage To Be Young, Gifted and Black. endobj Living on the Lower East Side, Lorraine was free to explore the life of . endobj /Parent 1 0 R [1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. /Parent 1 0 R 132 0 obj /Contents 381 0 R << 5 0 obj [5] Hansberry inspired the Nina Simone song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", whose title-line came from Hansberry's autobiographical play. Carter, "Commitment amid Complexity" (1980), p. 47. /Contents 537 0 R In this acclaimed biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Soyica Diggs Colbert narrates a life at the intersection of art and politics, arguing that for Hansberry the theater operated as a rehearsal room for her political and intellectual work. /Annots 539 0 R Hansberry, Lorraine F.B. Eyes Digital Archive: FBI Files on African Visitors to her childhood home included such Black luminaries as Duke Ellington, W.E.B. /Type /Page /Contents 456 0 R /Resources 358 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Contents 249 0 R /Type /Page /Annots 431 0 R Studies of Hansberry excavate her behind-the-scenes activism. /Annots 305 0 R 102 0 obj /Parent 1 0 R 86 0 obj /Type /Page [70], Also in 2013, Hansberry was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[71]. /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] /Parent 1 0 R 124 0 obj Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930, and was the youngest of four children. /Parent 1 0 R /Resources 511 0 R Desiring to pursue her longtime interest in writing and theater, she then moved to New York to attend the New School for Social Research. Perry's multi-dimensional, illuminating biography, Looking for Lorraine. 114 0 obj 56 0 obj /MediaBox [ 0 0 252 331 ] 42 0 obj Commissioned by NBC in 1960 to create a television program about slavery, Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd. /Type /Page 99 0 obj Lorraine Hansberry: Radiant, Radical And More Than 'Raisin' Written by Oscar Brown, Jr., the show featured an interracial cast including Lonnie Sattin, Nichelle Nichols, Vi Velasco, Al Freeman, Jr., Zabeth Wilde, and Burgess Meredith in the title role of Mr. 57 0 obj /Parent 1 0 R >> endobj In 2017, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.